Field notes on the Nostr protocol
Learn Nostr by poking at the real thing
Generate keys, sign events and watch packets fly between relays. Real cryptography, running right here in your browser.
Hi, I'm Nos! Let's learn Nostr together.
How Nostr School works
Real crypto, live
Every key, hash and signature is computed in your browser with the same code real clients use.
Plain words first
Each idea starts in plain language. Open an Under the hood drawer whenever you want the JSON and the NIPs.
Example data or live relays
Lessons use friendly example data. Flip on live mode to read real events from public relays.
The course, chapter by chapter
Twelve chapters, from why Nostr exists to its honest trade-offs. Start anywhere; we remember the chapters you finish.
- Up next Why Nostr? What goes wrong when one company owns the server, and how relays change the game.
- Not started Identity is a keypair No accounts, no passwords: you are a secret key and its public key.
- Not started Anatomy of an event Every post, like and profile is a signed JSON event. Take one apart.
- Not started Relays & the wire protocol Watch REQ, EVENT, EOSE and friends fly between clients and relays.
- Not started Filters Ask relays for exactly the events you want.
- Not started Kinds & NIPs A periodic table of event kinds and the specs that define them.
- Not started The social graph Follow lists, and how clients find where your friends publish.
- Not started Private messages Envelopes inside envelopes: how NIP-17 hides who talks to whom.
- Not started Zaps Lightning payments meet Nostr events.
- Not started Signing & login Let apps use your key without ever seeing it.
- Not started The ecosystem Relays, clients and NIPs, in numbers.
- Not started Trade-offs Spam, discovery, relay economics and key loss: an honest look.
Tools for tinkering
The course interactives also work on their own. Handy when you just need to check an event.
Key tool
Generate demo keypairs and convert between hex, npub, nsec and friends.
Event inspector
Paste any event JSON: we check its id and signature and explain every field.
Filter playground
Build a REQ filter and see which events match, against examples or live relays.
Kinds table
A searchable periodic table of event kinds and the NIPs that define them.
NIP reference
Search every NIP by meaning, then edit the JSON it defines with explanations for each field.
Glossary
Every Nostr term on this site, in plain words.
Twelve short chapters. Each one has a hands-on interactive.